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Today has been tough. As I posted on Facebook, DD found out yesterday at 5pm that her job offer was rescinded. They were just finishing up the last of the paperwork in HR. She went to graduate school every Saturday for 3 years to train for this job and did a 3 month unpaid internship. It is her dream job, and she was so, so happy when they offered it to her. She would have been able to move to a better apartment, one without mice. The only saving grace is that she hadn't officially resigned her current position so she is not out on the street and keeps her insurance while she figures out her next move.

So this Executive Order of a hiring freeze kills the dreams of maybe thousands, maybe 10s of thousands. People who already quit their job, sold their house, moved before they realized their new job was rescinded. And this is not in the name of efficiency and curbing waste. Does anyone think the VA has too many doctors, nurses and therapists? Would anyone think the VA might need to hire more doctors, nurses and therapists in the next 3 months? They won't be able to, because the hiring freeze is a minimum of 91 days.

The homeless veterans who she would have got housed (she was quite successful at this during her internship) will have to wait that much longer to get off the streets. But maybe heartfelt exclamations of, thanks for your service, will keep them warm.

Again, DD is better off than some who thought they were starting new jobs, so we can be thankful for that. But God I hate to see her dream crushed, and so unnecessarily. I can't bear to think about what's coming next for some families.

I did get some good news on Monday about a trip I wasn't expecting. But I'm compartmentalizing for now, because I don't want to soil it with my current angry, mournful and pessimistic emotions. More to come.

Thanks! Yes, it does get tiring.

I think they are all different. Deceased DH did sleep more at one point (it reversed at the end) but not in the middle of the day (went to bed early). I think sometimes trying to cope with trying to understand what is going on around them gets very tiring.

Thanks for the kind words about Berkeley, and sorry for any confusion between Lucky and Berkeley.

I am slowly admitting to myself that as much as I love the dry weather, we are heading towards a drought, so I am hoping we get some more rain soon. On my way to Santa Cruz on Monday I passed a reservoir that was over its banks in June. On Monday it looked to be only 3/4 full. Not good for the end of January. This is our rainy season and we haven't had much rain. I'm hoping that this mid winter dry spell means lots of late winter and spring rains.

213.3 this morning. Still going the right direction, but oh, so slowly. Though I was wiped out yesterday I did pull myself together and got to the gym. Always feels good when I'm done.

Liz, question for you: Yesterday my dad was asleep when I arrived at about 3:30 in the afternoon. He woke up while I was writing him a note. Usually he wakes up fairly quickly from his afternoon siesta, but not yesterday. He didn't want to visit but go back to sleep. Is that a common symptom in mid to late stage Alzheimer's? Did you see that in Paul?

Wednesday/Hump Day came very quickly this week for me. Makes me quite happy! LOL! This short timer would like to say, "4 months, 7 days!" But who's counting, right??? I AM!!!!

127.0 on the scale. Still hovering between 126-128 and trying to hammer down this new set point.

Happy Hump Day. At some point in the distant past that's what we called Wednesday, but I haven't heard that nickname in years.

Book Club last night was lovely. I've missed my Kentucky friends. We (six of us) are currently focused on Pulitzer prize winners. Last night's selection was "March" (yes, I know one doesn't put book titles in quotation marks, but I don't have access to italics here, so quotation marks it is). It's a book about Mr. March of "Little Women" (see above) and what happened to him after he went to war. It is an amazingly insightful book about so many issues, albeit a tough one to pick up sometimes because it's about some horrific events. Nonetheless, I recommend it highly.

Today I'll run some errands, shop for a little food, and snuggle up. Low here this morning was minus one degree Fahrenheit. There's a little sun, which makes it nicer than a lot of cloud cover.

That's all I got, folks. Hump it up!